New Couple Alert: Julianne Moore and … Joseph Gordon-Levitt??

JGL and Julianne were photographed yesterday in New York City, presumably talking about their new movie, Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut, Don Jon’s Addiction. The film is about a porn-addicted character (portrayed by Joseph) who embarks on a quest to better himself and his circumstances. Scarlett Johansson was cast in one of the film’s leading roles, Julianne in another.

If the theme and the A-list movie stars don’t get you to see the movie, there is a caveat here that might change your mind—Tony Danza’s in it, and no, I have no f-cking clue why either. Maybe he’ll be JGL’s porn sponsor or something. I could see that.

Anyway, the new film is said to be taking up so much of Joseph’s valuable time that he ultimately dropped out of Quentin Tarantino’s new project, Django Unchained, a slave-era drama:

A rep for Joseph Gordon-Levitt has confirmed to EW that the actor has dropped out of Django Unchained, Tarantino’s upcoming slave-era drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Christoph Waltz and Jamie Foxx, due to a scheduling conflict with his feature directorial debut.

Gordon-Levitt was set to play a small supporting role in Django but knew that shooting might conflict with Don Jon’s Addiction, which he’ll be directing and starring in with Scarlett Johansson, according to a Deadline report from February. As it turns out, scheduling does in fact conflict, and Gordon-Levitt recently confirmed to MTV News, “No, I’m not going to get to do [Django]. I’d love to, but it just doesn’t work.”

Gordon-Levitt sadly won’t get to join the all-star cast, which includes DiCaprio, Waltz, Foxx, Kerry Washington, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kurt Russell and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie, set for a December 2012 release, tells the story of a slave turned bounty hunter (Foxx) who sets out to rescue his wife (Washington) from a ruthless plantation owner (DiCaprio).

So I guess that sounds pretty serious, then, right? Joseph has got some pretty high hopes riding on this new Scarlett Johansson-led movie that he’s directing, so much so that he’s willing to drop out of a lucrative film project (featuring people like Leonardo DiCaprio! Samuel L. Jackson! Jamie Foxx!) that probably would have assured his shaky place as an A-list actor. Hope you’re making the right decision, boyfriend. I’ll love you one way or the other, but the critics aren’t so friendly, you know.

Not that I think this film he’s producing is going to compare to a Tarantino film, but as the producer, there is a higher level of involvement and responsibility you have to the film. I think it’s pretty solid of JGL that he didn’t just dip out like that for the sake of starring in a QT movie.